The Bookworm's Guide to Faking It (The Bookworm's Guide 2)

“Thank you.” She looked between me and Holley. “I hope his little delusions about your relationship haven’t been too problematic?”

“They’re your delusions,” I reminded her. “You started it.”

“So I did. Forget I said anything. Oh, there he is!” She muttered an apology as she darted off after Grandpa and disappeared in the same manner he had.

Jesus, my family was hard work.

I sat down in the seat Grandpa had vacated. “I cannot tell you how sorry I am about my family. What a shitshow.”CHAPTER TWELVE – HOLLEYrule twelve: when you laugh, you can convince anyone of anything. even yourself.“No, it’s fine,” I replied, stirring my drink with my straw. “I’m only in half the wedding pictures, been asked at least fifteen times if we’ve discussed starting a family, had my ring finger checked four and a half times, and finally, been asked if I have a grandmother who is single and as sweet as I am.”

Seb slowly nodded. “Not too bad, then.”

“For a twenty-six-year-old single woman at a wedding? I’ve had worse counts.”

He met my eyes, lips twitching. “Sorry. I should have known.” He paused. “You didn’t say you had a single grandmother, did you?”

“God no.” I snorted. “I told them if they wanted to summon a demon, they’d have better luck with a Ouija board.”

“Unless it was Uncle Scott. He could do with being kept in line by an older woman.”

I fought a giggle. “Sounds like you’ve got a pair of your own after you.”

“Har har har,” he said dryly. “It’s not my fault baseball pants make my ass look great, all right? It comes with the job. Kinda like a bonus.”

“That makes seniors perv over you?”

“Wasn’t really shooting for the seniors, but at least we know their eyesight is perfectly fine.”

I rolled my eyes and sucked the last of my drink through the straw. “Calm down or you’re not going to be able to fit your head through the door to leave.”

He sipped his beer, eyes sparkling with laughter over the top of the rim. “Do you need another drink?”

“Good choice of words.” I slid the empty glass toward him. He set down his beer and took it, getting a little too close to me in the process, and I glared up at him.

Hell yes, I needed another drink.

Today had been the longest day ever. I’d barely slept after last night’s revelations and lying in bed next to Seb had made it even harder.

I had no idea what to do now that the truth was out.

Now that I knew what he’d wanted.

Because I didn’t know what he wanted now, either.

My gut told me it wasn’t friendship, and my gut wasn’t often wrong.

You didn’t look at someone the way he looked at me if you just wanted to be friends.

I didn’t know how it would work. We were different people now, but maybe that was a good thing. We were older, more mature, more understanding, and less likely to run away from confrontation.

Well, he was.

I was still gonna hightail my ass out of confrontation city.

I did not do confrontation, as evidenced by this morning’s lame attempt at getting out of the conversation.

I was getting ahead of myself, though. We’d had more than enough conversations in the last twenty-four or so hours, and I wasn’t going to have any more serious ones until I could go home and have some time alone and clear my head.

Oh, who was I kidding?

I was heading straight to the store to be among the books tomorrow.

There was no place like sitting in the middle of a room full of books, surrounded by endless possibilities.

Maybe one of them had the answer I was looking for.

“Damn.” A low whistle came from behind me. “One, your boobs look great in that dress, and two, if you’re not going to sleep with him, can I have him?”

I spun in my chair and looked up at Tori with a wry smile. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

Laughing, she flicked her dark hair over her shoulder and joined me at the table. “You look good to say it dragged you through a few bushes.”

“Touché.” I laughed. “Saylor said you’d be here.”

“Kate runs an interior design business, and I manage her website. I wasn’t sure I was going to come because I didn’t have a date, but Grandma sent me to spy on Sebastian when she realized Kate was his sister.”

I laughed into my hand. “So she really does have a crush on him?”

She held up a hand. “Girl, don’t. I’ve seen more photos of his ass in the last day than I have of myself as a baby. She’s going to clear out her photo albums and fill them with photos of him at this rate.”

“Please let me be here when you tell him that.”

Tori grinned. “Done. How’s it going? With you two?”